In an interactive system used for a teleconference and chatting, image data, voice data, and text data are exchanged between servers and clients in preset control sequences using applications for processing those image data, voice data, and text data, respectively.
Such a system that uses a plurality of applications, as well known, is provided with a control interface for controlling those applications integrally (refer to the patent document 1).
In a conventional system provided with such an integral control interface, a predetermined application is installed in each of the servers and clients beforehand and an interactive session is started when all those applications are set up.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A No. 114759/1997
In the above conventional example, however, an application is used for the communication between each server and each client according to the control sequences determined when the system is designed. It is therefore very difficult to add a new application required to cope with an expansion of the system in function if the application cannot satisfy the control sequences determined when the system is designed.
Furthermore, in the above conventional example, only the utilization rate of each of the resources (line, disk, etc.) used for each of the applications is managed; no application session cooperation is managed. This is why it is difficult to make a plurality of application sessions to cooperate. This has been a conventional problem. In addition, when distribution of an event is to be notified to a plurality of applications, each of those applications is required to be set manually, so that much labor is needed to manage the system. This has been another conventional problem.
A client user, when participating in the system, is required to use all of a plurality of predetermined applications; the user cannot select only necessary applications. This has also been still another conventional problem.